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Hi, I’m Bill O’Reilly. Thank you for watching us tonight.

Hating America. That is the subject of this evening’s “Talking Points Memo.” According to a new poll, 40 percent of Canadian teenagers think America is an evil country. Among French-Canadian teens, the number jumps to 64 percent. Those numbers can be laid right on the doorstep of the Canadian media and government

As you may know, the FOX News Channel is not allowed in Canada, but CNN is. Fair and balanced? You decide.

The USA takes a relentless pounding from many Canadian news organizations and from the liberal government. So, what can we expect from the kids? They’re not getting a full picture. And neither is most of the world.

Increasingly, the bully America is being portrayed as the devil. And the far left in this country is gleefully piling on. Guys like Michael Moore [are] running around the world telling everybody what a bad place America is. Moore and his enablers should be very proud of themselves

For the benefit of the Canadian kids, let’s take a look at the record:

‘The foreign and defense policies of Ronald Reagan (search) resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the freeing of approximately 122 million people in Eastern Europe.

‘ The state of Israel would cease to exist if not for American protection, and about 5.5 million Jews would be in grave danger.

‘ Nearly 23 million Taiwanese would be denied freedom if not for American protection. More than 48 million South Koreans would be living under a dictatorship if not for American protection. USA action led to the removal of the Serbian dictator Milosevic (search), who was responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people in the Balkans.

‘ The USA and Britain removed the Iraqi dictator Hussein, who was responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East. And we have also removed the terrorist Taliban government in Afghanistan.

‘ America is sending $15 billion to Africa to help victims of AIDS. We were unable to find out how much France contributes, if anything. To be fair, Canada sends $270 million, which is substantial.

‘ American action in Central America, Grenada (search), and Haiti (search) has kept millions of people out of totalitarian regimes. Of course, all of this has cost every American taxpayer big. And thousands of American servicepeople have lost their lives protecting people overseas.

It is insulting and dishonest for Americans and Canadians and Europeans to condemn this country because they don’t like certain policies. Dissent is good. Slander is unacceptable.

The truth is that the USA has freed more human beings in 230 years than the rest of the world combined. France has freed almost no one. Ditto Canada.

So, pardon me as I object to the Michael Moores of the world ‘ and that man is too cowardly to come in here, all right? Pardon me as I object to the anti-American foreign press and bums like Chirac in France and Chretien in Canada.

America has a provable history of freeing oppressed people all over the world in fighting evil dictators. Canada should be ashamed that so many of its young people are flat out ignorant. And Americans should wise up and realize we are living in a changing world. Old friends are not necessarily true friends.

And that’s “The Memo.”

Spoons

I have just a few thoughts I’d like to share about the fascinating developments in the Canadian election yesterday….

Just kidding.

Seriously, I can’t think of anything less interesting than which tribe of trained monkeys is in charge of the fifth-rate country to our North. Move along, there’s nothing to see here.

Via el Jefe, Glenn:

• Map, North American Power Grids
• 1965 Blackout History
• New York City Blackout of 1977
• Real time Graph, Connecticutt Valley electrical load

This is formally BASH CANADA DAY!

The first thing the Canadian Government found to do was to blame the Americans for the power failure.

The office of the Canadian prime minister, Jean Chretien, initially said the power problems were caused by lightning in New York State but later retracted that. Canadian officials later expressed uncertainty about the exact cause but continued to insist the problem began on the United States side of the border.

NY Times

Blow me, Prime Minister Cretin! You head a third world government. The Dominican Republic puts your government to shame. You cannot defend your own borders. Your armed forces are in a state of collapse. Your socialized medicine resulted in 3/4 of your SARS cases being medical personnel, and you actively encouraged a second outbreak. You’re a pitiful excuse for a national leader.

And, hey, Cretin! The 1965 blackout started in CANADA!

Judas H. Priest, I’m Astonished!

Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Clement said the government will cover the cost of doubling pay for health-care workers on SARS duty at four Toronto hospitals.

Mr. Clement said the government supports the move to increase compensation for front-line workers but did not endorse requests from other health workers in hospitals dealing with SARS that they get more money as well.

Mr. Clement said the four hospitals, which have formed an alliance to combat the SARS outbreak, are a “special case.”

“That has to be recognized as such and that has to be remunerated as such.”

Nurses combating SARS have been particularly unhappy that agency temps brought in to help in the fight are being paid at a premium.

The new hospital deal would pay nurses at the top end of the salary scale about $66 an hour, roughly what the temporary nurses are being paid.

X-ray technicians and other staff who work with SARS patients or in SARS screening are also getting the premium.

From the Globe and Mail.

Intermixed with this is the usual union whining. Nurses at other hospitals want the pay increase. Everyone’s bitching about more safety gear like you’d know how to use it if you had it, eh?. Look here for how well these folks used the correct equipment they had.

Health officials announced that the five cases being investigated for SARS at Rouge Valley Health System’s Centenary site in east Toronto have been cleared of having the disease; the quarantine period is over for staff and students at Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy in Markham, with no new cases reported; the two cases being investigated at West Parry Sound Health Centre and a nurse in isolation in Ottawa have also been cleared.

“These latest results confirm the fact that there has been no community exposure,” Colin D’Cunha, Ontario’s Commissioner of Public Health said in a news release.

Now that’s good news. Especially for the high school kids.

More than 6,400 people, including 2,000 from the school, are now in quarantine in greater Toronto after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome resurfaced six days ago.

Before then, Toronto had thought it had beaten the disease — no new cases were reported from mid-April to mid-May.

Health officials said a student at the school, located just north of Toronto, appeared to have symptoms of SARS, and that prompted the quarantine call. One of the student’s parents worked at Toronto’s North York General Hospital, epicenter of the latest outbreak.

“The risk of getting SARS in this kind of setting (a school) is very low,” said Dr. Murray McQuigge, a physician in the region where the high school is located.

“We are not aware of any other student in this school who is symptomatic right now.”

The Toronto area is the only place outside Asia where people have died of SARS. There have been 27 deaths around Toronto and there are 12 probable cases now.

Doctors say six patients are in critical condition and they are monitoring about 30 more people for infection.

“In retrospect, we think we let our guard down too early,” said Dr. Donald Low, chief of microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital, one of the leaders in Toronto’s fight against SARS.

Doctors think the virus lingered in hospital wards for weeks and infected nurses, patients and visitors after the authorities eased rules on wearing masks and gloves.

Nurses this week said they had noticed patients with SARS-like symptoms after the rules were relaxed, but doctors and hospital administrators did not listen.

“Unfortunately, they were not taken seriously,” Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, told Reuters, describing it as “ridiculous” that no one paid attention.

From Yahoo News

Let’s see. In a city that just was recovering from a SARS scare and multiple shutdowns of hospitals and thousands of people quarantined… an elderly person lay in a hospital being treated for a respiratory problem and the thought of SARS occurred to no one. The problem spread to several other hospitals, and the index patient (very elderly and frail, died.

If it were smallpox, wouldn’t every rash be first evaluated as smallpox before going on to another diagnosis? How come respiratory problems in populations known to be easily infected with SARS weren’t looked at for SARS? Dumb, dumb, dumb!